Ethiopian Oddities - Single Shot French Mle 1878 Marine
Bolt Action Rifles
•
5m 23s
Among all the standard rifles that are coming into the US from Ethiopia through InterOrdnance, there are a handful of really unusual oddballs, and we are going to look at several of them. We have the first one today; a single shot adaptation of a French Mle 1878 Marine Kropatschek. Only a small number of these rifles were originally made, part of a contract for the French Navy made by Steyr in Austria. As originally built, the rifle has a 7-round tubular magazine inside the handguard.
This example, however, has been fitted to a stock with no space for a magazine tube. The stock is inletted to fit the rifle's elevator mechanism, but the elevator goes nowhere, and the system is capable of single shot use only. Why was this done? Perhaps the magazine tube was damaged at some point, and there were no replacement parts available? This is certainly a rare pattern of rifle, and spares would not be likely on hand for an Ethiopian armorer...
Up Next in Bolt Action Rifles
-
Ethiopian Oddities: Strange Smallbore...
Today's Ethiopian Oddity is a Gewehr 1871 carbine - remarkably still with its matching bolt - rechambered for a small bore, smokeless powder cartridge. It is a quite interesting example of an Ethiopian armorer's work...
-
Ethiopian Oddities: The Mo43 Mauser -...
Today's Ethiopian Oddity appears to be a factory-built Mauser short rifle, but embellished with a couple replacement parts (nosecap retainer, stock, bayonet lug) and some truly mysterious markings. The top of the receiver has been milled down flat, and hand-engraved with a quite odd crest, along ...
-
What Would Ross Do? The .280 Military...
There were many different versions of the Ross straight-pull bolt action rifle made and adopted by the Canadian military. However, the version that Sir Charles Ross thought would be best was only ever made as a small run of prototypes. this rifle was called the Military Match M10, in .280 Ross ca...